In glassware molding, so-called I.S. molding machines are used, which comprise a number of side by side molding sections, each for producing a succession of products. Each molding section in turn comprises a rough mold, normally with a row of adjacent cavities, each for receiving a glass gob and forming a respective semifinished article, which is transferred to a finish mold by an invert mechanism.
Each rough mold comprises two half-molds movable with respect to each other between a closed position defining the row of cavities, and an open position to remove the semifinished articles.
The half-molds are moved between the open and closed positions by a mold opening/closing assembly which, for each half-mold, comprises a lateral actuating arm hinged at one end to a fixed structure, fitted at the other end to the relative half-mold, and of the type described, for example, in Italian Patent Application n. TO2007A000090 filed on 7 Feb., 2007 by the present Applicant, and to the pertinent parts of which full reference is made herein for the sake of clarity.
The molds are normally cooled by a mold cooling device, which draws cooling air from a pressurized air chamber normally formed in the bed of the machine, and feeds it to the molds. This is done in various ways. In one solution, the air chamber has an opening underneath the molds, through which air is fed upwards and flows over the half-molds in the closed position. This solution is unsatisfactory, by failing to provide for thorough, continuous cooling of the molds.
In an alternative solution described, for example, in European Patent EP 0 576 745 B1, air is fed into an intermediate lateral chamber of the half-molds, in which terminate two rings of opposite vertical conduits, by a telescopic feed device, which is supplied with air from the air chamber in the machine bed, and feeds it into the intermediate chamber of the relative half-mold.
This solution is extremely complicated constructionwise, by having to ensure airtight sealing of the various parts in relative motion when moving the half-molds between the open and closed positions. Moreover, it is bulky, and involves painstaking adjustments whenever the molds are changed. For all these reasons, the above known solutions are extremely expensive to produce and adjust.